Shelly Suarez is CEO of Learn Now Music, Inc. a professional on-site music education service supplying MD, DC, VA, CA and FL with in-home private music lessons and on-site group music instruction at public and private schools, pre-schools, and other facilities.
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Monday, May 26, 2014

Music that Makes Us Feel

Everyone likes different kinds of music, therefore:

Not everyone likes every kind of music, therefore:

Not everyone likes the kinds of music everyone else does.

I know this seems obvious in some ways. But often, because music is near and dear to most people’s hearts, there is a very personal reaction to music, even when it comes to what others are listening to.

The emotion that we feel, but don’t always articulate, is that there are often non-musical reasons why music is so important to us. How many times has a song taken you back to a time or place or idea that was especially poignant in your personal timeline? Sometimes I hear a song, and a whole scenario pops into my head – where I was when I heard the song, who was there, what the lighting was like, what temperature it was, and on and on. Other times a song just makes me feel bummed out (or really happy) and it’s not even a particularly sad (or joyful) tune.

When other people tell us what kinds of music they like, often our gut instinct is to go, ‘oh, I love that too!’ or to head in the opposite direction – ‘Ugh. Really? You listen to that?’ We might not verbalize those opinions so powerfully, but when it comes to music, most of us will feel them at one time or another.

Since most of us think it’s a good thing to make the world a better place (discounting those intent on world domination a la Pinky and the Brain), let’s do our family, friends, neighbors and strangers a good deed by really listening to the music they like (especially if we don’t), and maybe even doing some gentle sleuthing:

What do they like about the music?

What does it make them think about?

When did they first (or last) hear it?

Was the song special for someone close to them?

The name of the game here is empathy, understanding, and feeling, and that’s kind of the whole musical point, isn’t it? Instead of going with our gut, let’s take a moment to find out what makes the people around us tick, via their musical choices. We could end up learning a lot more about them then we ever thought possible.